International Women’s Day 2026: Gender Equality at Work Means Access to Opportunity
At Onside, gender equality isn’t just about representation.
It’s about creating a workplace where opportunity is genuinely accessible to everyone.
International Women’s Day is a moment to reflect on the progress made towards gender equality - and the work still to be done. The UN-led theme is “Rights. Justice. Action. For ALL Women and Girls,” which focuses on dismantling barriers to equality and ensuring justice, rights, and real change.
Alongside that, many organisations use the “Give To Gain” campaign tagline, emphasising that when we give support, opportunities, visibility, mentoring, and resources to women, we all gain — personally, socially, and economically.
When our Founder and CEO, Martin Brennan, started Onside Accounting, he wanted to challenge the traditional model of the profession, creating a firm where talented accountants could build meaningful careers without sacrificing quality of life - wherever they live.
Removing barriers in the accountancy profession
Traditionally, careers in accountancy and tax have been concentrated in major cities, making the profession harder to access for many people - particularly those with caring responsibilities or those living outside large financial centres. While the profession has made significant progress in attracting women, retention remains a challenge. Many professionals step away mid-career due to rigid working patterns, long commutes, or the difficulty of balancing demanding roles with caring responsibilities.
Creating more flexible and accessible career paths is an important part of ensuring talented professionals can stay and progress in the industry - something we set out to address from day one through our fully homeworking operating model.
By removing geographic barriers, we aim to ensure talented professionals can build meaningful careers in accountancy and tax wherever they live in the UK - while allowing us to attract the best accountants to our team regardless of location.
This approach helps support:
- Equal access to opportunity
- Inclusion beyond urban centres
- Flexible careers for parents and carers
Because equality at work isn’t just about opportunity on paper - it’s about making sure those opportunities are genuinely accessible.
A truly distributed workforce
Our team works across the UK in cities, suburbs, towns and rural communities.
This geographic diversity shows how a remote-first approach can widen access to the profession and allow firms to recruit talent far beyond traditional financial hubs. We believe talent shouldn’t be limited by postcode.
Homeworking allows professionals to develop their careers without needing to relocate - supporting greater diversity in the profession and helping people balance work with family and community life.
“Working remotely means I can build my career in accountancy without needing to move to a major city. It’s allowed me to balance my work and family life in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible before.”
Olivia Harris, Wales
What this looks like in practice
For us, equality also means transparency, accountability and action. From the outset, and still today, women make up the majority of our team and are strongly represented at leadership level.
Currently:
- 63% women and 37% men across the business
- 62.5% of our Senior Leadership Team are women
- 70% of management roles are held by women
These figures reflect the environment we’re working to build – one where talented people can progress and lead within the firm.
Supporting the future of the profession
Improving access to the profession has always been central to Martin’s vision for Onside.
Recently, this vision was part of his winning campaign for a coveted position on the ACCA Council, the governing body of the world’s largest professional accounting organisation, representing over 780,000 members and students globally.
Throughout his career, Martin has mentored dozens of aspiring accountants and consistently spoken about the importance of ensuring the profession is accessible regardless of geography or background.
As Martin explains:
“We’ve built a firm that creates meaningful careers for people living outside major cities, helping them access high-quality opportunities without needing to relocate.”
Equality is access
International Women’s Day reminds us that achieving gender equality requires more than good intentions. For us, that means building a workplace where opportunity is not defined by location, background or circumstance.
Because equality isn’t just opportunity in theory - it’s access in practice.
